It’s the early odds on team’s chances to make the Super Bowl. What are your team’s chances? Just look below. My team, the Falcons, well, they’re pretty much as long a shot as there is, and at 100-1, I think that’s kind of unfair (this one should be somewhere in the thousands or millions). Pats at 7-2? Chargers at 7-1? I like that action. . .

Arizona Cardinals 50 - 1
Atlanta Falcons 100 - 1
Baltimore Ravens 75 - 1
Buffalo Bills 50 - 1
Carolina Panthers 40 - 1
Chicago Bears 35 - 1
Cincinnati Bengals 60 - 1
Cleveland Browns 25 - 1
Dallas Cowboys 6 - 1
Denver Broncos 50 - 1
Detroit Lions 80 - 1
Green Bay Packers 25 - 1
Houston Texans 60 - 1
Indianapolis Colts 7 - 1
Jacksonville Jaguars 12 - 1
Kansas City Chiefs 100 - 1
Miami Dolphins 100 - 1
Minnesota Vikings 18 - 1
New England Patriots 7 - 2
New Orleans Saints 25 - 1
New York Giants 15 - 1
New York Jets 35 - 1
Oakland Raiders 50 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles 20 - 1
Pittsburgh Steelers 15 - 1
Saint Louis Rams 75 - 1
San Diego Chargers 7 - 1
San Francisco 49ers 80 - 1
Seattle Seahawks 25 - 1
Tampa Bay Buccanneers 40 - 1
Tennessee Titans 40 - 1
Washington Redskins 50 - 1

There’s never enough Madden 09 previews, and with that said, I present you with yet another. As long as these things keep popping out, I’m going ot keep showing them.

I posted the original trailer, but this one seems to be the actual gameplay, which is so much more revealing than the closeups that come out at first. Enjoy.

Here’s a look at Madden 09, which features Brett Favre on the cover, which is probably bad for Brett. Before, Madden only ruined a person’s statistics. Now, it’s gonna mess up sonmeone’s fishing trip on a nice Saturday.

The NFL has decided not to fine a team for NFL priors, something the League had been mulling over for a while now.

FOXSports.com has learned new league rules resulting in fines for clubs whose players are suspended for off-field violations begin June 1. But the NFL is pardoning franchises whose players’ legal problems occurred before then.

“The policy on club fines is being applied going forward (prospectively), not retroactively,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in a Tuesday email. “The plan is that the club to be fined will be the club to which the player belonged at the time of the arrest or violation. But it only applies to arrests or violations occurring after June 1.”

The article points out that this is very good for teams like the Vikings, who had a boat sex scandal worth of violations, as well as the Bengals, who had, well, Chris Henry. And that’s enough violations in itself.

Got this from over at Deadspin, and I’m just gonna let you read, because I’m kinda at a loss of words. Let’s just say that Darrion Scott, former player on the Minnesota Vikings, has an interesting way of teaching his children.

According to the criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court: The boy’s mother heard the child’s muffled cries and found Scott, who is 6-3 and 290 pounds, holding the bag over the boy’s head on April 26. She said the boy was on his back on the floor, his legs kicking and that Scott was holding the bag tightly around the boy’s neck.

She told police she had evidence of previous injuries while the child was in Scott’s care. A doctor who examined the boy said there is a reasonable degree of medical certainty that marks on the boy’s arm and ear were intentionally inflicted and were consistent with either burning or being struck.

It’s not a bad method. Hard to blame the guy. Unfortunately the police came into play, because next on his list of things to do was take the kid skydiving with no parachute. If he can’t learn to take his shirt off, hope it catches enough wind to break his speed and land gracefully to the ground, then he deserves the hard fall. Serves him right.

The day after the draft, and it’s time to see who the winners and losers are. I’m not one who believes you can pick winners and losers the day later — I think it takes two years, not three, like most of the experts say to see who really won — but with that said, I will say this: Tennessee, m’friends, you were losers. They drafted Chris Johnson in the first round, a halfback who’s fast, and that’s about it. In the fourth round, they drafted William Hayes, who wasn’t a player expected to be picked in the full seven rounds.

Aw, such is life; we’ll know more of who won and who lost when the season starts, but for now I cling to the hope that Matt Ryan’s a combination of Michael Vick (without the animal abuse, of course), Brett Favre (without the interceptions, of course), Tom Brady (without being a dick, of course), Dan Marino (without the anger, of course), and Peyton Manning (without being a, you know, a Manning, of course).

It’s hard waiting for the football season, given that it’s baseball and that’s it for quite a while, but the NFL does do whatever the NFL can do to try and pass time. They have a combine, they have a draft and, as little as it may seem, they’ve got the releasing of the NFL schedules (not to mention fantasy drafts, which are always nice). The schedules were released today, and while I won’t go through each game, I will go through some games that are sure to be some fun to watch this year.

Sept. 4
Washington Redskins @ New York Giants
-Super Bowl Champs have a history of sliding off the year after. We’ll get a good idea in week one how New York will handle the pressure of being a Champ.

Sept. 7
Kansas City @ New England
-Wonder what the spread will be for week 1? Remeber: Last year, for the first eight weeks, the Pats covered every Sunday. Vegas finally adjusted and they wore down. Like I said last year, I’ll say it for this year: Pound that ATM until they fail you. Pound it.

Sept. 14
San Diego @ Denver
-Remember Philip Rivers, Jay?

Sept. 21
Jacksonville @ Indianapolis
-The Colts will win, they always do against the Jags, but these matchups are always close.

Sept. 28
Cleveland @ Cincinnati
-Let’s see if one of these defenses can hold the other to under 40 points.

Sept. 29
Baltimore @ Pittsburgh
-It’s a fun rivalry, and based on the other MNF games leading up, it’ll be the best of the first five.

Oct. 5
Pittsburgh @ Jacksonville
-Last year, Pittsburgh was thought to be one of the best in the AFC, and then Jacksonville steamrolled them at home, then did it again in the playoffs. The Steelers should have a sour taste in their mouths, and will hopefully have some kind of plan to stop that Jaguars running game.

Oct. 12
New England @ San Diego
-Let’s hope a Super Bowl berth isn’t on the line and LT doesn’t have a stubbed toe. Let’s also hope Tom Brady throws to Wes Welker more than he does Antonio Cromartie, who terrorized him in the AFC Championship.

Oct. 19
Tennessee @ Kansas City
-Around this time, you’ll hear fans saying V-Young should be benched. Mark my words.

Oct. 26
Cleveland @ Jacksonville
-A strong defense and strong running game vs. no defense but one ridiculous passing game. Makes for a fun matchup.

Nov. 2
New England @ Indianapolis
-May want to mark this one on the calendar. ESPN is licking their chops for this Sunday Night game.

Nov. 8
New Orleans @ Atlanta
-Just kidding.

Nov. 16
Philadelphia @ Cincinnati
-Two good offenses, though one has to wonder just how good the Bengals offense will be without Ocho-Cinco. Guy’s a douche, I get that, but he’s a douche that’s really good at catching and then running.

Nov. 23
Indianapolis @ San Diego
-Peyton plays his worst games against the Chargers. Every time I say it’s a fluke. I’m starting to just think they know what they’re doing against the guy. He won’t have six interceptions in this one, but I don’t see him winning.

Nov. 30
Indianapolis @ Cleveland
-Two good offenses. Who doesn’t want to watch that?

Dec. 8
Carolina @ Tampa Bay
-It’s one of the few MNF games that I think will have playoff implications. I said it last year, and I was wrong, but I think the Panthers do win the NFC South, and NFC overall, this year.

Dec. 15
Cleveland @ Philadelphia
-If you haven’t noticed, I’m looking forward to seeing Cleveland this year. They’re young, they’re fast, and they don’t play defense. It’s everything I love in watching a game in which I bet the over.

Dec. 22
Green Bay @ Chicago
-Eh, it’s a rivalry. But I don’t see either team being over .500 at this point.

Dec. 28
Cleveland @ Pittsburgh
-Let’s hope the Browns are good, or else half the games I’ve said to watch will be no fun to watch.

It’s an interesting thought. And I don’t know if Moss is doing this to get the Pats to pull the trigger, or if he’s indeed serious, but the All Everything wide receiver who can single handedly change an offense has apparently contacted his former QB about the possibility of the two of them signing on with the same team.

I’ve said for years that the NFL Combine is the most overrated, over-hyped event in sports today. It doesn’t track how good of a football player a guy is, it tracks how good of an athlete he is. And to show that the best athlete doesn’t always equal the best football player, we’ve got this: Troy Williamson, who was drafted seventh overall three years ago, is being traded for a 6th round draft pick to the Jags.

The guy was a Combine Freak, running the 40 in a blazing time, and was thought to be Mike Tice’s replacement for Randy Moss. Two seasons in, it hasn’t worked out so well. His rookie season was bad, his second season was bad, and this last season was terrible. He caught 18 passes; Randy Moss caught 23 touchdowns.